COMMUNITY GARDENS, AS THE RESULTS OF METROPOLITAN GENTRIFICATION PROCESSES? – THE CASE STUDY OF LEONARDO COMMUNITY GARDEN IN BUDAPEST

Abstract

The literature regarding community gardens does not detail the relation of gardens and gentrification. Although some on-line articles have been published on this issue, these papers claim that gardens in poor neighbourhoods have remarkable effect on the image of the area. As a consequence, gardens attract real-estate investors. Thus, the gardens might lead to the resettling of deprived individuals and to the change of local society.This paper intends to explore this relationship through the case of Leonardo Garden in Inner-Józsefváros, Budapest. The main question was whether the community garden is an element of the gentrification process taking place in the neighbourhood or not. To answer this question field research had been carried out and semi-structured interviews were made.As a result, I came to a conclusion that the Leonardo Garden is not the consequence of the gentrification processes in Inner-Józsefváros. However, the gardeners are a better-off segment of the society, and newcomers in the district. In my point of view, the gardeners are the beneficial group of the gentrification in the district, although they are not the trigger of the process.